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Brady - Academy is best since I've been here

By Josh James

Liam Brady, Academy Manager and Head of Youth Development at
Arsenal, believes that this season's Carling Cup run is further
evidence that the Academy is producing players of a high enough
quality to feel at home in the first team.

Academy graduates Mark Randall, Henri Lansbury, Kieran Gibbs and
Justin Hoyte have all appeared in the League Cup this season, and
Liam believes that there more talented youngsters further down the
system awaiting their chance.

"I'm very excited about what we have at Under-16,
Under-17 and Under-18 level, especially with regards to the English
boys," he begins. "They have done ever so well in the
Under-18s league so far this season, as in the main we have played
with the Under-16s and 17s. We are top of our section at the
moment, and the Reserve team is doing very well also and that
mainly consists of our second year boys.

"In fact I would say this is probably the healthiest state
the Academy has been in since I've been here.

"I think that's because we are starting to see the
first generation of players who have come all the way through the
age groups at Hale End. Boys like Jay Emmanuel-Thomas, Henri
Lansbury, Jack Wilshere, Emmanuel Frimpong and Sanchez Watt have
all attained England schoolboy recognition and they have been with
us since they were nine and ten.

"Roy Massey deserves great credit for all the work he has
done with the younger players at Hale End."

The Hale End Academy is where the Club's under-nines to
under-16s are based, before becoming scholars and moving the
Arsenal Training Centre at Shenley, with the first team squad.

Roy Massey is in charge of the Essex-based facility, where he
works each day with a host of coaches.

"There's an excellent team of coaches there," Liam
confirms. "Carl Laraman came on board about a year ago, and
he's in charge of the coaching for the Under-12 downwards. We
also have a number of younger coaches, generally non-league players
in their late 20s or early 30s, who work with the players at that
level too.

"Then we have Steve Gatting, who coaches the Under-15s and
Under-16s. He also mentors and tutors the guys, helping them with
their apprenticeships and sporting excellence - the football side
of their education. Steve Leonard is another coach doing great work
at Hale End, we also have George Paris, who was with me at West
Ham. It's a good coaching team at Arsenal, they all know the
kind of work we want them to be doing.

"Basically," the former Republic of Ireland
International continues, "unless we can give players to
Arsène Wenger who are technically strong, able to pass and
move, they would find it difficult to progress to the first team.
So that's why I'm very pleased with the quality of player
we have got this year.

"The Under-18s who have gone into the first team - Mark
Randall, Nacer Barazite, Fran Merida, Henri Lansbury, Kieran Gibbs
- they have all done very well and you can only do that if you are
technically able.

"To get these boys into the Club in the first place is the
most important thing, because we feel that as soon they are here,
the facilities and coaching we can offer is sufficient to keep
them. But if they end up at West Ham, Tottenham or QPR for example,
you can't get them. So a lot of work goes into getting the boys
at eight or nine, and Roy does a great job with that."

In the past there has been a criticism that young English
players were not as technically gifted as many of their foreign
counter-parts, due to the coaching in this country. However Liam
states that, at Arsenal at least, the English players are now very
strong technically.

"Generally I don't think enough emphasis is placed on
the technical side of things in coaching the youngsters in England.
But we have been doing that here for the best part of ten years now
and I do believe that the technical level of our players has
improved because of that. The academy system is functioning well at
Arsenal, but it all depends on the work you give to the
boys."

And a successful academy has led to a successful Carling Cup
side in recent years - this is the third year in succession that
the Gunners have reached the last four, sticking the policy of
using mainly young players - this year younger than ever.

"I heard that the average age of the squad that won at
Blackburn in the last round was less than 20," says Liam -
himself a former trainee at Arsenal. "The experience the boys
are getting is invaluable. I think how they have played has been
amazing, and the results they have got have been amazing too. A lot
of the teams they have knocked out in recent times have been teams
that really want to win the competition - Everton, Newcastle and
Blackburn for example.

"In last year's Semi-Final against Spurs, they put
their very best team out to reach the final, but they couldn't
beat us and I'm really looking forward to this year's
Semi-Final.

"The boys play without fear, and in fact if anyone has
fear, it's the opposition because know if they don't do
well they could get embarrassed."

This season though it's not just the Carling Cup team that
has benefited from the Academy's Graduates.

Johan Djourou has recently returned from a successful loan spell
at Birmingham City, where he played more than a dozen Premier
League games, and will be hoping to pick up where he left off in an
Arsenal shirt last season, following his return to the Club.

Another player who gained valuable first team experience with
the Blues is Nicklas Bendtner, who spent two years in the Gunners
Academy between 2004 and 2006 before his season-long loan spell at
St Andrews. Since returning to Arsenal in the summer he has already
netted twice in the Champions League, and got his first Premier
League goal against Spurs in the 2-1 win at Emirates on December
22.

"It was funny," recalls Liam, "because at
half-time I said to Nicklas that if he can score a winner against
our biggest rivals he will be a hero forever more. It was quite
prophetic of me!"

This interview featured in the matchday programme for
Arsenal's League Cup Semi-Final versus Spurs. If you are
interested in subscribing to the programme, please call 020 8342
5858

Copyright 2015 The Arsenal Football Club plc. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source10 Jan 2008

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